Michel Arpaillange: “Our priority is to have 1,200,000 members by 2015”

07/07/2012 - 09/07/2012

It was the job of the two Regional Development Managers, Michel Arpaillange and Douglas Langley to present the sporting review of the NTD meeting in Budapest. This was a detailed and comprehensive report which included; the training of NTDs, grant applications, educator courses (32 participants), mass participation projects and competitions by grade and age category. A meeting has been scheduled for August to standardize all of the IRB initiatives.

The main objective according to Michel Arpaillange is to increase the number of member-players from one million to one million two hundred thousand (i.e. 20%) by 2015, using the World Cup as the primary impetus. Particular emphasis needs to be put on young people. Countries should identify opportunities in the schools sector. FIRA-AER will provide them with an educator who will canvass in schools on 10 occasions per year, over a 3-year-period. It will also establish education plans and cultural projects related to rugby and create a specific strategic plan. FIRA-AER has already targeted 5 countries. The possibility of twinning another European country with a county in England is being explored. This will be followed by Inter-school exchanges and the creation of a competition between national teams who fail to qualify for the RWC.

Jean-ClaudeBaqué made a further point: “In France, the World Cup competitions have allowed us to increase our numbers from 15 to 20%. FIRA-AER will provide you with the necessary resources (human, material, road maps, guidance, twinning, exchanges)”. Michel Arpaillange gave a list of nations who have appointed a qualified National Technical Director since the launch of the initiative in 2005/2006. It comprises 19 countries: Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Hungry, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine. 16 other countries are in the process of training an NTD: Andorra, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cypress, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland. 5 countries have no NTD.